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Topic: Absolute Favorite Household Thing (Read 4921 times)

Mine would be a tie between the plastic bins in my fridge (Container store, under $15, and I can literally pull out ONE BIN and have all my salad toppings ready to go), my awesome ceramic egg pan (I make eggs daily for DP, and could, if I wanted, just wipe the pan out between uses - no stick doesn't even begin to describe it), and my toaster oven (which is also convection, and a rotisserie). I use all three nearly daily, and would be lost without them.

Although, if any of them could go in favor of somewhere for me to put my kitchen towels IN the kitchen, I'd happily trade them!

my kenwood chef mixer, it's used at least once a week for baking and quite often more as it has a blender attachment

all i need now is to save up for the mincer attachment/sausage maker and the spice grinder

Pod to the Kenwood Chef!

The spice grinder is brilliant. I use it for nuts and other things. I never use my mincer attachment though, although I was looking for it the other day. The coffee grinder for it is the best. I love the juicers and the ice-cream maker but I don't use them much because of my diet. I wondered about a sausage maker but I think I'd rather get hold of the cream maker first.

I got a Kmix immersion blender to supplement the Kenwood Chef because I wanted a food processor for making paté. The food processor end of the Kmix does all the things the Kenwood Chef doesn't. I did have the Kenwood Chef slicer but the plastic crumbled into the food on Christmas :-( It's a hazard when things go on forever! Or rather, bits of them don't go on forever.

have you tried getting it as a replacement part? we had to get replacement rubber seals for the blender on my mum's one (30+ years and counting!) i know that it's possible to get them in the UK and i'm sure you must be able to get them in the US

Is it bad that I can't pick just one? I hope not. The following list is in no particular order as they are all favorites!

Washer and dryer: After having to use a laundromat for 25+ years I am still amazed, thrilled and utterly captivated by how easy laundry is when done at home.

Zester: I cannot believe how many years I spent making zest with a knife and scraping off the white pith. What a pain. It's amazing to me how simple and fast this little implement makes things. Why, oh why, did I wait so long to buy one?

Good knives: What needs to be said about a knife that works beautifully?

Roasting pan: I bought the one recommended by CI and love it. So easy to wash, so sturdy, so accommodating.

Le Cruset: What can I say? I am in love with their Dutch oven.

Cuisinart Food processor and mini-chopper: They do it all!

Dehydrator: Fun and useful. You can't ask for more than that in a kitchen appliance.

Electric steamer: I discovered the extreme usefulness of these after I burned out a double pot steamer on the stove. Now, I never worry.

Pepper mill: Another recommendation from CI, and it works so beautifully. Six grind sizes, easy to fill, and very sturdy.

Vegetable peeler: Simple and extraordinarily effective. If there was ever an argument for a very inexpensive product that paid off millions of times its cost this is it. No more parboiling tomatoes to remove their skins! Another CI recommendation.

Cherry pitter: Cherry pie was never so easy as with this pitter. Inexpensive too.

Plastic garbage can with locking lid: Keeps all odors inside!

Blender: An appliance I use every single day.

Vacuum cleaner: Thanks to three cats and their six sets of paws that track litter to the rugs constantly I use this on a near-constant basis.

The thing that brings me most joy is probably my freezer. There was only a fridge when I moved here and I lasted for two weeks before buying the freezer, I couldn't live without one. I pick and buy berries and freeze them for winter, it was full of them. Now it's a lot emptier and I like to make huge batches of food to freeze so that I don't have to cook as often.

I bought a new pot last year after looking for a pretty one for a few years and it's close to perfect. It's very pretty, turquoise in color and cast iron so it keeps the tea warm longer. It may be just my imagination but tea seems to taste better in it.

I have a set of nesting bowls/things by Joseph Joseph that's so pretty that I keep it on the counter. It appears to be discontinued but this one looks pretty much the same, except instead of measuring spoons mine has a lemon squeezer.

I received a generic spice rack as a wedding gift and soon discovered that half the things in there weren't useful and I wished I could replace them with something else.

I did lots of research and finally I decided I want magnetic spice tins in which I could keep whatever spices I wanted. After almost a year and a half, I have finally amassed a full collection of tins, as well as a metal backsplash on which to mount them above my stove. I have enough tins for all my spices as well as corn starch, baking soda/powder, yeast, salt, etc. I have arranged it all so that there is room in the center to stick a recipe up there if I need to. Of course, now that I have everything, I am considering moving the placement.

Here is a photo of it, although two of the tins were not up there at the time:

Logged

"From a procrastination standpoint, today has been wildly successful."

We both like our coffee a certain way and none of the pod coffeemakers make if the way we like. We found this really cheap single cup coffeemaker that does it perfectly, and bought a few of them for when the first one burns out.

I love my Electric Skillet best of all. Most people don't have these anymore (although when I got married everyone had one). I'm on my second one.

The great thing about it is that it's big (a rectangle) and can hold 6 - 8 burgers. It makes perfect pancakes - just dial 350 degrees and preheat, and there is never a burnt or underdone pancake. And it's good for frying (chops, steaks, etc.) I use it several times a week.

My new favorite gadget is a Microplane, for zesting. Wow, that thing works great!